Recover lost icons

If you overwrite, lose, or edit a system-provided icon, there’s no obvious way to get the original back again. Here’s the solution:

Open the folder /boot/home/config/settings/beos_mime , then navigate to the subdirectory that matches the same supertype/type as the icon that’s messed up. For example, let’s say the icon for all of your text/plain files system-wide became corrupted somehow. You would open the folder /boot/home/config/settings/beos_mime/text and look for a file called “plain.”

Insert your BeOS installation CD and open the exact same path on the CD.

Replace the filetype in question on your hard drive with a clean version from the CD, and you’re done. The change takes effect immediately.

Note that the icons live inside the attributes of these generic-looking files. They’re not visible in Tracker or even in the FileTypes add-on, but they’re there.